Ben Margot/The Associated PressThe Golden State Warriors' Reggie Williams drives between the New Orleans Hornets' Darius Songaila and Morris Peterson on Wednesday night in Oakland, Calif. Williams scored 22 points off the bench.Regardless, if Posey put his hands up or a teammate came to help contest, the Warriors kept making 3-pointers. Devean George unleashed the first one a minute into the quarter and eight more followed before the final horn sounded.

The Hornets blew a 21-point lead in the third quarter and lost 131-121 to the Warriors in front of 17,155 at the Oracle Arena on Wednesday night.

The Warriors made 11 3-pointers in the second half – nine in the fourth quarter. The Warriors closed out the game shooting 54 percent from the field – 48.1 percent from behind the 3-point line – and they outscored the Hornets 43-25 in the fourth quarter.

“We gave them the game, it seemed,’’ said Posey, who returned to the rotation after missing three games because of flu-like symptoms. “They did a good job of moving the ball around and hitting open guys with 3s.’’

Instead of carrying over momentum from Monday night’s victory against the Los Angeles Clippers that snapped a seven-game road losing streak, the Hornets’ defensive problems were exposed once again.

The Warriors were without rookie guard Stephen Curry, who suffered a sprained left ankle. But center Anthony Tolliver, whom the Warriors signed to a 10-day contract in January before re-signing him for the remainder of the season, scored a team-high 30 points and made four 3-pointers.

Backup forward Reggie Williams, who played earlier this season in the NBA Development League, made 8-of-11 shots, which included four 3-pointers, for 22 points. Forward Chris Hunter, another former NBA Development League player, scored 17 points on 7-of-9 shooting. Injury-riddlled, the Warriors played only eight players. Only Hunter, Corey Maggette and C.J. Hunter did not make at least one 3-pointer.

“When they get on a roll, they are effective and the fourth quarter was something difficult for us to handle,’’ Hornets Coach Jeff Bower said. “It’s very disappointing. They got on the move and we couldn’t keep the pace controlled. We have to learn from the experience and move on.’’

With 11 minutes remaining, the Hornets held a 98-90 lead. Then, four of the Warriors’ next seven shots were 3-pointers that carried them to a 108-104 lead.

But after taking a 69-56 halftime lead, it appeared the Hornets were in control. Rookie point guard Darren Collison's 3-pointer and Julian Wright's fadeaway jumper and alley-oop dunk extended the Hornets' lead to 87-66 with 5:24 remaining in the third quarter.

By the end of the quarter, however, the Hornets' lead had been cut to eight. The Warriors made 52 percent of their shots and for the rest of the game struggled to defend.

"We can't keep the ball contained out front,'' said forward David West, who scored a game-high 36 points. "This team wasn't necessarily looking to dump the ball off as opposed to kicking it out and getting wide open 3s.''

During a stretch in the fourth quarter, when the Warriors made their decisive push, Williams made three consecutive 3-pointers that extended the Warriors' lead to 117-111. The Warriors (19-48) eventually pushed their lead to 11 behind Williams' 18 points in the fourth quarter.

"We kept saying as poorly as we played in the first half to keep trying,'' Warriors Coach Don Nelson said. "Sometimes things just turn around and we got hot at the right time in the fourth quarter.''

With 13 games remaining in the regular season, the Hornets now trail the Portland Trail Blazers by eight games for the eighth and final playoff spot. And now they are in the toughest stretch of their five-game road trip that began Sunday with a loss at Phoenix. Tonight the Hornets play Denver before facing the Utah Jazz on Saturday.

The Hornets (33-36) have lost 10 of their previous 13 games and eight of their past nine on the road.

"We needed this win,'' rookie point guard Darren Collison said. "We let it slip out of our hands and it's just unexcusable.''